


Seeing Clearly

by Yrindor



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F, Getting Together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-13
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:21:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22689898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yrindor/pseuds/Yrindor
Summary: Anisha has seen more than her fair of eccentric pet owners and odd pets in her time, but nothing quite like this.  There's a lot that doesn't add up about Mei and the animals she brings in, and Anisha is going to get to the bottom of it.
Relationships: Veterinarian/Women Who Keeps Bringing Her Strange Creatures
Comments: 8
Kudos: 27
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 5





	Seeing Clearly

**Author's Note:**

  * For [frozensea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/frozensea/gifts).



"Welcome to Rocky Valley Animal Hospital."

"Hi, the sign in your window says you take emergency appointments!?"

"What can we help you with today?"

"I found this snake on my doorstep this morning. It looks like something tried to take a bite out of it."

"We can take a look, but I'm afraid we don't have anyone in our practice who specializes in reptiles. You would be better off bringing it across town the animal hospital next to city hall. They have more staff trained to handle exotic animals. There's also the wildlife rescue down by Broadway if it's a wild animal and not an escaped pet."

"Not an option!" the woman in front of the counter said. "Please, can you just take a look at it for me?"

Anisha sighed. "I'll take a look," she agreed, "but I can't promise anything. Can I have your name to enter into the system? You can fill out the rest of the paperwork while you're waiting."

"Mei," the woman replied.

Anisha waited for anything more, but when it didn't seem forthcoming, she shrugged. She could get the rest of the information off of the patient forms after. She reached for the box, but Mei slammed a hand down on the lid. "Wait!"

"What?"

"Here. Put this on before you open the box." Mei rummaged around in her oversize handbag and pulled out a pair of thick glasses with an attached face shield. "It spits."

"We have our own protective equipment," Anisha countered.

"Please use this one," Mei said. "I took it from work. I'm a...scientist. I work with some related compounds; they're too corrosive for the regular equipment."

Anisha frowned. "You said you found this snake on your doorstep?"

Mei nodded. "Laying across the stones. I almost stepped on it by mistake."

"If it's spitting venom, that sounds like a cobra of some sort. We're not even close to the native range of those snakes."

"Maybe someone had a pet escape. Please look at it, just wear that when you do."

"I'll take this into the back," Anisha said, making sure the lid was securely on the box before she even considered picking it up. "If you could fill out the forms on the clipboard there, I'll take them from you when I come back."

"Thank you!" Mei said, grabbing the clipboard and dropping down into one of the chairs with what sounded like a sigh of relief.

Anisha gingerly carried the box into the back and set it on the table. Grateful for the veterinary school professor who had insisted she take at least the introductory courses on various exotic species, she made sure he had everything she needed before she slid on the glasses, tipped the box on its side, and eased it open.

Two bright yellow eyes stared back at her.

The snake reared back, but she was faster, pinning it to the table at the top of its neck and easing its head into a tube so it couldn't bite. With the patient safely secured, she took a moment to look it over. Definitely an elapid of some sort, possibly a cobra. It had many of the key features of a classic cobra at least, though it didn't look exactly like any she knew.

She had been fearing worse from its injuries given what the woman out front had described. The fact it was about to shed was doing nothing for its looks, but it did seem to have deterred whatever had tried to grab it, or leave it on the woman's front walk. That was something else to consider later. How had the snake ended up there anyway? In her experience, people looking to dispose of unwanted pets didn't usually walk down random stranger's driveways to leave them at their door, and it was too cold out for the snake to have traveled far on its own.

At least she didn't need to do much. If she could just get a weight for the snake for her records, she could send it on its way with its rescuer, and hopefully a list of recommendations for who nearby would be better suited to care for it. Carefully, she tried to shift the snake over to the scale. Not that she had that much experience in the matter, but didn't it feel a lot heavier than expected given its size? She pushed the button on the scale, but to her frustration, the number refused to settle, fluctuating wildly between when she would have guessed initially and what it had felt like to her. Hadn't she been saying they needed to replace the scale for months now? What else did people expect when they kept cutting the budget?

She muttered to herself as she jotted down "unable to determine accurately" in the weight field and coaxed the snake back into its box. Once she had the lid securely fastened, she carried it back out to the front and gave a silent thanks when the woman was still there. It wouldn't be the first time someone had brought in a stray and then left. Maybe if they hadn't been forced to cut most of their front desk staff...

"Good news," she announced. "Your snake's going to be fine, nothing that won't heal in a few days given the proper environment. It's also about to shed. I can give you the contact information for some organizations in the area who can help find a new home for it."

"That won't be necessary," Mei said quickly. "I'm sure I can figure it out. If you could just tell me how much I owe?"

Anisha entered the information into the computer and printed out an invoice. "Here you go. The first page is your copy, and the second page is the places I mentioned, just in case."

"Oh thank god," Mei muttered as looked over the page. "Accounting better not give me hell this time."

"What?"

Mei looked startled, as if she hadn't meant to speak aloud. "Nothing. It's just...less than I was fearing, so my monthly budgeting might not be too far off after all."

Anisha smiled. "We try," she said. "Call us if there are any problems, or if you have any questions. I'd say we hope to see you again, but since it's not your pet..." she shrugged. "Take care."

Mei looked down at her toes. "I might be back," she said. "If I run into any more strays, I'll bring them to you; you did good work." She tucked the papers into her pocket before picking up the box and carrying it back out the door. The bell overhead chimed as she left.

It wasn't until several hours later that Anisha found the deep pits on the exam room table. She wasn't a chemist, but it did look remarkably similar to experiments she had done in college labs involving drops of acid on samples of metals. She was quite certain the table had been just fine when she arrived that morning.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mei didn't come back for nearly three months. At first, Anisha had been disappointed, but within a few weeks, she had largely forgotten the encounter around everything else that had happened.

Then, one bright morning, Mei came rushing back in with a new box, bringing a blast of frigid outside air in with her. "You still take emergencies, right? I found a rabbit this morning tangled up in a fence. I got him free, but he'd already torn himself up pretty badly."

Anisha reached for the box, half expecting Mei to stop her with another strange request.

When nothing happened, she eased back the lid. Mei was right. The rabbit had clearly seen better days, but it was responsive, looking up at her with terrified eyes. "I'll see what I can do," she said. She wouldn't be able to judge anything more than that until she had the rabbit out in better lighting.

She carried the box into the back, calling for the vet tech to come assist her with a minor surgery. Mei had stumbled into good timing bringing in the injured rabbit on one of the only mornings where the office even _had_ a second set of hands.

After further examination, she found herself questioning the story about the fence. She'd seen injuries like these more than once before, and every time they had come from a trap, not a fence. She didn't have much time to dwell on the implications of that since the vet tech chose that moment to declare they were ready to begin.

The procedure was exactly as tedious and particular as she had feared. It would have been marginally less tedious if her hand hadn't picked up a sudden and unexplained twitch, which seemed to be worse every time she worked near her patient's head. If she were a more superstitious person, she might even have said some unseen power was _forcing_ her hand away from the area, almost as if there were something there it didn't want her to see. Such things were ridiculous of course, so she wrote it off as too much coffee and too little sleep.

Once again, Mei paid quickly and made her exit, turning down the list of wildlife rehabilitation centers that would take an injured rabbit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was only three weeks before Mei was back again.

"I found this bird on the side of the road, and its wing looks broken. Can you do anything for it?"

Anisha sighed. "You know we've been through this before. We specialize mainly in dogs, cats, and the occasional other housepet. You'd really be better off with one of the wildlife rescues for these sorts of things."

Mei shook her head aggressively. "Not an option," she said. She thrust the cardboard box in her arms toward the counter. "You're good at this," she pleaded. "You haven't let us down yet. Please, will you at least _look_ at the poor little guy. He's definitely part hawk--well, entirely hawk I guess that would be. Hawks don't interbreed with other birds of prey, do they? Reproductive biology was never my strength; I'm more of an animal behavior type of person myself." She trailed off into nervous laughter.

"You're rambling, Mei," Anisha said as she took the box. Whatever was inside was making quite the racket and doing its best to break free. It wasn't the behavior she'd normally associate with an injured hawk. Then again, _everything_ that Mei brought in was a bit odd somehow.

She waited to make sure this one didn't come with any special handling instructions, then took the box into the back and eased off the lid just far enough to peer inside.

If that was a hawk, it was the biggest hawk she had ever seen. At first glance the coloring was correct to be a hawk, but it was closer to the size of an eagle.

She removed the lid and tossed a towel over the box before her patient could make a bid for freedom. She lifted it out carefully, avoiding its injured wing. Thankfully, and despite her expectations, the bird didn't seem interested in fighting her once she had it wrapped up. Officially, her brief examination didn't turn up anything unusual, other than its size, some tail feather that weren't the usual color for a red-tailed hawk, and eyes she swore looked more like cat eyes than bird eyes.

Unofficially, examining her patient felt like it was giving her motion sickness, which made absolutely no sense at all. She wasn't sure how else to describe it though, other than it felt like her brain and eyes were determined to tell her one thing despite her hands trying to say something else.

X-rays confirmed her suspicion of a broken wing, which was, relatively speaking, easy enough to splint. Especially when her patient was almost unnaturally helpful. Arguably, there was nothing more for her to do but return the bird, now with one wing wrapped snugly to its body, to Mei and hope that this time she could convince her to bring it to one of the wildlife rescue centers. It would need rehabilitation if there was to be any hope of releasing it back into the wild.

Despite no substantive evidence, she couldn't shake the feeling that something else was wrong. Her instructors had all drilled into her head in school that one of a vet's best tools was her intuition. Time to put that to the test.

She returned to the front and caught Mei's attention.

"Is there a problem?" Mei asked, worry suddenly creasing her face.

"I'm not sure. I splinted its wing; x-rays confirmed a fractured humerus, and it doesn't appear to be in pain currently. It's also not acting normally. I'm concerned there's another issue that hasn't been identified yet; I want to keep it overnight for observation."

"I'm sure it's fine."

"Are you a trained medical professional?"

"No, but--"

"The bird needs to stay for observation," Anisha repeated. "You can pick him up in the morning."

"I can keep an eye on him at him. I'm not a vet, but I am qualified in animal handling."

Anisha said nothing, crossing her arms and waiting until Mei broke the silence.

"Fine. Can I at least see him again before I leave?"

"I don't see any problem with that. I'll show you where he'll be staying tonight." She led Mei into the back, then waited for a few minutes while she cooed over the hawk as if it were some sort of fluffy hamster and not a deadly predator.

"What time do you open?" Mei asked when she finally stepped back from the cage.

"Official hours don't start until 9am, but you can come by to pick him up as early as 8. Someone will call you if any problems come up."

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Mei said. "Make sure you get some sleep too."

Anisha laughed. That wasn't something she heard every day. "I'll be fine. This isn't my first overnight."

"Are you sure you don't want company?"

"Quite sure. If you want to be helpful, you can start looking at wildlife rescue places that might take an injured large bird of prey. He's going to need rehabilitation before he can be released, and that's not something we are at all equipped to handle."

"Promise me you'll call if there are any problems at all?" Mei insisted.

"I promise," Anisha replied. Not her first nervous pet owner, but the ones who brought in strays weren't usually so anxious about leaving them. Especially not ones who seemed to come across strays and injured wildlife with the frequency Mei did.

A few minutes later, she was alone in the office with her newest patient. She pulled up some paperwork that needed filing and settled down to wait. She wasn't entirely sure what she was looking for, but she was certain she would know when she saw it.

Several hours later, as the clock approached midnight, she began to wonder if it had all been for naught. Sure, Mei was a bit weird, and so were the patients she brought in, but that didn't mean there was some bigger mystery to uncover. Their practice saw plenty of eccentric pet owners after all; she was letting her imagination get the best of her.

The hawk let out a perfectly normal meow. Clearly it was time for her to call it a night; absolutely nothing of note was happening here.

Wait.

She rubbed her eyes. She _must_ be tired if she thought she was hearing a hawk meow. Everyone knew those were cat noises, not large bird noises.

The hawk meowed again.

Certain she was imagining things, Anisha looked over to the bird's cage.

It was still there, still with a bandaged wing, but at some point since she had last checked, it had lost its bird legs and picked up the lower body of a cat.

"Well that's something you don't see every day," she muttered as the griffin stared at her. Mei was going to have some explaining to do in the morning. "No, you still don't get out," she said when the griffin rattled its good wing against the front of its cage. "You still need to rest or that wing is never going to heal properly."

Once the griffin seemed to have settled down, Anisha returned to her desk. Three more budget reports and she would call it a night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anisha startled awake to the sound of someone knocking on the door. She rubbed her eyes and looked up at the clock. Eight in the morning already!? She must have accidentally fallen asleep over a spreadsheet at some point during the night.

She unlocked the front door, and Mei nearly tumbled inside. "How is he? How's the cat? Is he okay? Nothing happened overnight, right?"

"Funny," Anisha said, schooling her face into as neutral an expression as she could muster, "yesterday afternoon you came in with a hawk, not a cat."

Mei didn't miss a beat. "Sorry, did I say cat? I meant hawk; I was just thinking about my own cat is all. He's fine by the way, even if he did try to steal my breakfast again, but that's beside the point. How's the hawk?"

"Unfortunately, your hawk appears to have disappeared sometime overnight; however, there's now what appears to be a rather bored griffin in its place. Care to explain?"

Mei took a sudden interest in an invisible speck of dust on the ground. "It's a long story."

"We don't open for another hour. That seems like plenty of time for a story to me."

"Fine. Fine, I work for an animal rescue group myself. Except instead of normal pets and wildlife, we deal exclusively with magical creatures. They aren't something you want wandering around on the street after all; it starts making people nervous."

Anisha thought back to the earlier creatures Mei had brought in, and how all of them had given her a headache when she tried to examine them too closely. "You put glamours on them," she accused.

"It usually stops people from asking too many questions."

"So let's see, this is obviously a griffin. Last time it was the top of the rabbit's head that felt weird, so...jackalope?"

Mei smiled. "You're good at this."

"What about the first time?" Anisha asked, thinking back to the snake. Then, she remembered the unusual pits in the table where its head had been, and the special goggles Mei had given her. "Basilisk!?" she said. "You gave me a _basilisk_ without warning me?"

"I warned you as best I could," Mei countered, "and I gave you proper protective equipment."

"Don't you have a vet of your own you can use?"

Mei winced. "We did, but then they cut the funding to our program again, and academia made her an offer she couldn't refuse for a tenure-track position. Faculty appointment aside, even the starting salary they offered her was more than we could ever afford here. We haven't found a permanent replacement yet, and honestly, I'm not sure we will at this rate."

Anisha had been ready to fight over having been misled, misguided, and thrown into potentially dangerous situations through lack of sufficient information, but seeing how tired and defeated Mei looked had her reevaluating her own reactions. "Look, I can't promise we'll always be able to help, but you don't know until you try, right?"

"Really!? You'd do that for us!?"

"We can't leave your creatures hurting with no one to care for them, can we? One condition though: no more glamours. Do you have any idea how much of a headache trying to examine patients that way causes?"

"So long as there's no one else around, that should be manageable. Unless there's anything else, can I take our friend back now? We may have lost our vet, but we do still have our own rehab and release team."

"Here's his discharge paperwork and your copy of the bill," Anisha said. "I'll go get him now."

The griffin seemed as eager to leave as she was to have him out of the office before anyone else arrived. He climbed into his box without protest, not even complaining when she secured the lid.

Anisha handed the box back to Mei. "Take care," she said. "Hopefully you won't have need for a vet again anytime soon, but when you do, you know where to find me."


End file.
